I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “I don’t care what you two did ten years ago. I just want an honest wife.” I glared at her.
Isha looked down. “You don’t think what we did is wrong?”
I drummed my fingers on the bottle. The tent was beginning to spin. “No,” I said. “I don’t think it was wrong.”
Isha exhaled loudly. “I was sure you would hate me if you found out. I thought you would think it was… immoral.”
“Lying is immoral,” I said. “What you two did isn’t immoral. In fact, it’s kind of…”
“Hot?” Heather interrupted.
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“Hrmm.” Heather brushed the hair out of her face and straightened her back. “Jaswinder,” she said, arching an eyebrow. “Would you like to see?”
Isha’s mouth dropped open.
“See what?” I said, leaning back.
“You know… me and Isha.”
“Heather!” Isha said, squirming.
I waved my hands. “Absolutely… not.”
Heather giggled. I looked at Isha. “I almost thought he was going to say yes, Ish. Then what would we have done?” She leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “For old time’s sake.”
Isha rolled her eyes.
“Alright, enough of that,” Heather said, reaching for her suitcase. “There’s something I want you two to see.” She pulled out a large, leather bound book with an ornate brass clasp, and brushed her palm over the cover. Isha’s eyelids fluttered with excitement.
I capped the bottle and put it away. “Is that the ritual book?”
“In the flesh.” Heather popped the clasp.
“What’s all that weird writing?” Isha asked.
“Arabic.”
“You can read that?” I asked.
“Some,” Heather replied, turning the pages. “But I had the fertility ritual translated so we don’t miss any steps.” She stopped turning, tapping a page with her finger. “Here it is. Recognize that?”
I bent over. On the page, drawn in red ink, was an image of a winged beast with a bulbous head, hateful, narrow eyes, and a nest of tentacles dangling from its jaw where a mouth should have been. Between his legs was an erect, double-headed phallus.
“That’s the thing in your suitcase,” I said, shivering.
Heather pulled the idol out of her suitcase and held it up for Isha and me to see.
“Ugh, get it away,” I said, shielding my eyes.
“You’re such a prude, Jas,” Isha quipped.
“Why does it have two penis heads?”
Heather turned the statue around and stroked the golden phallus. “I dunno. Wouldn’t you?”
“I’m fine with just the one, thank you.”
Heather cocked an eyebrow at me. “Isha has told me as much.”
I glared at my wife. “You told her about my penis?”
Isha cringed and hid her face.
“Aww, you’re both prudes. Well, you better relax, because this ritual isn’t for the faint of heart.”
Heather grabbed her coat and shrugged into it. “Now, I’ve got some preparation to do. You two stay warm, have a few more drinks, and I’ll be back before midnight.”
“Wait, we have to do it out there?” I said, pointing at the tent flap.
Heather smirked. “We didn’t come all this way to do it in a tent.”
I must have passed out because I suddenly realized that I didn’t have any clothes on.
“What’s going on?” I said, propping myself up on my elbows.
Isha was removing my socks.
“Let’s go, Jas. Heather wants us to put on these robes and meet her outside.”
“Just robes? Nothing else?”
“That’s what she said. Now come on, we don’t have much time.”
I growled and sat up. “This is nuts.”
Isha handed me a black, hooded robe, a length of rope, and a pair of black slippers. I put them on and followed her outside.
“It’s freezing!” I said, too loudly.
Isha grabbed my hand and pulled. “Come on!”
The moon was nearly full, basking the valley in rich pale light. Heather was waiting about fifty meters from the tent on the west shore of the lake. We hurried over, trembling.
She walked toward us and smiled.
“Step inside,” she said. “He’s waiting.”
She gestured toward a wide circle of more than a hundred skulls on the ground. Candles burned freely in the circle, seemingly untouched by the wind. In the center of the circle was a bed of blankets covered in red silk and two matching red pillows. The idol and Heather’s book were placed on the center of the bed.
I narrowed my eyes. “What is this?”
“Go,” Isha demanded.
I grumbled and stepped over the skulls.
The frigid wind stopped abruptly, replaced by a pocket of fresh, warm air. I shot a look at Heather, who quirked her eyebrow knowingly. The headache I’d woken up with simply vanished, and every minor discomfort I’d been feeling over the past few hours, as well as those I’d felt for years, instantly slipped away.
Isha followed me in. She immediately gasped.
“How are you doing this?” I said, staring at my hands.
“So many lost their lives at this place,” Heather said as she stepped across the line of bones. “Men, women… children.” She swept an open palm toward the skulls. “Their loss is our gain.”
A euphoric grin melted across Isha’s face. “That’s beautiful,” she said.
I nodded dumbly, as a wave of bliss crashed over my mind.
“Come here, Jaswinder,” Heather said.
I moved toward her. Heather loosened my belt and pushed the robe from my shoulders, smiling. She turned to Isha then removed hers as well. I licked my lips as her robe fell to the ground.
Heather removed her own robe and stepped out of her slippers. My mouth hung open as I stared at her body. Feeling uninhibited, I started toward her.
“Not now,” she said, gently pushing my hands away. She glanced at the bed. “This way.”
Heather took our hands and laid us down on either side of the idol. “Relax for a moment,” she said, kneeling in front of the idol. She picked up her book, and began reading.
I put my arms around Isha and kissed her gently on the lips. I felt her tongue pass over mine, and a tiny bolt of energy flowed into my mouth.
“Wow,” I said.
Isha kissed me again. “I feel like I’m floating.”
She ran her hands over my chest, and a flood of warmth surged into my body.
Each touch felt electric, each caress I felt with all of the nerves in my body. As Heather spoke, her words flowed over us, through us. The language had no meaning, but I felt her voice pouring into me, feeding me. I stared into Isha’s eyes. I felt her entirely. I knew her.
Heather closed the book.
“We will begin,” she said, handing me the idol.
I took it and turned it over in my hands. “It’s vibrating,” I said.
“Yes. We all are, Jaswinder. Do you know what to do?”
“I–I do,” I told her. “I don’t know why, but I do.” As I held it, the idol’s phallus swelled and grew. “Amazing,” I gasped. I gently separated my wife’s legs and slid it inside of her. Isha arched her back and a wave of pleasure instantly crashed over me.
Heather slid her arms around my chest and put her mouth to my ear. “You can you feel it too, yes?”
“I can feel everything.” I moved the idol faster and faster inside of Isha.
“Now let it do the work,” Heather whispered.
“What do you mean?”
“Let go.”
I relaxed my hands and the idol began moving on its own. Isha shrieked in response, clawing at the idol, wrenching it closer, begging it to go faster.
Heather pulled me away.
“Just you and me now,” she said, crawling on top of me.